kind of needs but some, I can do without for 8.8 2024 sale from the orange shopping app (Shopee PH)

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This is a very quick post because, well, 8.8 isn't going to last long, really but there'll always be another sale day in online and offline stores in the coming few months here in the Philippines so...yep. 9.9 is also coming next month, for one.

I very rarely buy anything unless it's thrifted stuff or something I direly need and I rarely buy stuff on sales days because I know some shops, everywhere online and offline by the by, will always have some sales here and there sans online and offline shops-wide sales days.

But anyway, here are some things I have in mind I'm checking out of my orange app, Shopee PH shopping cart this 8.8 (August 8) sale day:

Thread Projects' (on Shopee PH) Passport Holder Version 2.0 Travel Organizer Vanity Make Up Pouch Passbook Holder

(Ph, screen captured from Thread Projects' on Shopee PH)

I'm also contemplating buying some things, bags here for the beach and a music event I'll be going to in October, the month after next (my birth month) month, but I've decided I'll get those when I'm in Metro Manila because I'll be using those there more anyways.

Yeah, I'm worried about my travel documents lately getting worried as they're only in a nylon bag yet (from Kipling) so I've settled I'm getting this in cream on today's sale day on the orange shopping app. Php 144 isn't bad for one of these I could probably get 2, I don't know yet.

Poperi PH's on Shopee PH Poperi Butter Balm - Lip Balm in Pink Shimmer and Natural Shine 

(photos screen captured, grabbed from Poperi PH on Shopee PH)

I like randomly browsing Shopee PH for new to me local brands and this made it to my radar there some time ago, maybe 2 days ago? As someone who keeps losing my Human Heart Nature lipbalms within the depths of my bags and with all the transferring of all my stuff fro the day from one bag to another, I NEED this. I need them in multiples, I'm contemplating getting about 4 of them, 2 in each shades.

What I love about these lip balms is they have spf in them and rarely do lipbalms have this here. My Human Heart Nature ones certainly do not have spf...I think, anyways. The only other one I can think of that has spf is BLK Cosmetics' on Shopee PH BLK Cosmetics fresh lip quench spf 25 PA++ in rose which I got yesterday in store in Ayala Centrio here in my city. They have a stall there near the across NMMC/Provincial Hospital mall entrance and exit. I paid the full Php 399 price for it yesterday in store and I'm beating myself up over that because I could've gotten it for lower than that yesternight around 12 midnight onwards during the start of the 8.8 sale at the orange shopping app for waaayyy less than that. My reason for getting it in store, however, is something like I REALLY needed a lip balm stat because my Human Heart Nature ones I've been using for longer were missing in action in my bag/s. Lol. Anyway, since I've spent for this one, I'll be keeping this in my every day to-go cosmetics bag and using it well to justify the Php 399 I spent for it yesterday. 

Side note: I looovee BLK Cosmetics. It's just that some of the everyday use ones (like sunscreen, etc) I like from them, I can find cheaper elsewhere so I only buy a few things there like mostly eye makeup stuff: mascara, eyeliner...this is when I'm not using other brands' like one I like from Japan and maybe some korean brand I've heard people rave about online, on social networking sites etc. 

Anyway, Poperi PH has other interesting fun stuff on their orange shopping app, Shopee PH page.

Here are some other things in my cart from this shop:

Poperi PH's Poperi Bear Plushy Keychain Accessory

I actually am rekindling my love for teddy bears. I had a collection of these growing up, most being gifted to me I don't know where they went now and yep, you can bet I'm getting 2-3 of these today as they're only 35 Php a piece. Less than 1 USD converted, literally just cents in USD a piece.

Poperi PH's Poperi Random Cute Design Hair Tie Accessory

I keep losing my hair ties, I need this in two or three pieces, multiples. It's only 12 Php a piece too! Literally just some cents in USD when converted.

You can get these in a bundle with the lipbalm/s here at Php 299 (around USD 5.something converted) here (if you don't feel like buying them separately and maybe can be good for gifting these to boxes/bundles to girl friends and more):

Poperi PH's POPERI GIFT BOX VALENTINES - Poperi Butter Balm with Cute Accessories Perfect Gift Bundle Pink Brown

(Photo screen captured, grabbed, nabbed from Poperi PH on Shopee PH)

You can even get this as a gift to yourself like, not just on valentines' day but any day of the year and if no one else is there to get this, these for you, self love, yes~. 

Anyway, that's it for today. I'll run some errands nearby or so if I'm going to catch up today's sales on the orange shopping app. Until next time!

I still owe a lot of stuff on this blog to its audience/people. I assure you I'm working rn on a lot of the catch up blogging here and editing some that may be hard to read (even for me, yep) ones.

Update, as of near 7:00 p.m. tonight, I just got the passport/documents and some cosmetic holder instead. Just one piece of it, anyway.

Higalaay 2022: Oro Photographic Society (Photo) Exhibit

All of August this year (yearly) is normally filled with fiesta or festival events. Cagayan de Oro City's patron saint is St. Augustine and we usually celebrate his feast day on August 28. It's a roman catholic thing and y'all know how the Philippines is a very roman catholic country sans other Christian denominations existing, co-existing here with us, roman catholics, and how, especially here in the Mindanao island, we have people of the Islamic faith, too.

Before the series of pandemic lockdowns, August is normally teeming with a lot of events from the fun run I really have been wanting to take part of for a looong while now to agriculture trade fares or displays at the Gaston Park right across the Cagayan de Oro City Cathedral, and to other trade and food fairs in 2-3 malls around the city. August here in Cagayan de Oro City is a pretty festive and fun month.

The month's already at its end but you can check the core events of the 2022 Higalaay (comradeship, camaraderie, brother/sisterhood in English) Kagay-anon, Cagayan de Oro City fiesta here.

For this month and this year, I didn't really go out to check out events going on for the festival. Miss 'Rona (COVID 19) is still around and it's also been raining on and off, week in and week out, every afternoon and evening so I try not to be around crowds much...yet, anyway. I'd like to stay away from being sick with anything for now especially now that we're heading into the last 4 months of the year.

Hmn...I did have a busy week catching up with some friends who are here for their holiday from other countries. They are some one or two fellow native Kagay-anons who've moved abroad to get married and work there. And in the process of catching up with them, I got to check out a few happenings or events of the Higalaay fiesta around Ayala Centrio last week.

One event I got to check out last week was the Oro Photographic Society's exhibit. It's a photo exhibit. It's just ended today, actually.

Three of my favorite photos from the exhibit are from my own Cagayan de Oro City, of course. Or at least two of them are from here. One is from Camiguin Island but it's close to our city so I'm claiming that one as well here. Haha.

I have featured Camiguin Island a lot on this blog. Kagay-an natives are known to frequent that island for long weekend vacations and more and I and my family are no different from those and we've lived here for years so that Camiguin Island photo definitely is up there with my two Cagayan de Oro City shots.

 

Bacolod and the Batanes Islands are in my to travel to list here in the Philippines, of course. I'm including those shots here are some distant-ish 2 and 3 favorites after the three above these two.

I didn't really know we have the Ibong Adarna (if you follow Philippine lore, you'll know this pretty mythical bird) here in our city but we do so I found this pretty cool.

I'm not at all sure if this exhibit will still be up in September. It says in the core events schedule that it ends today, August 31.

I've been to some other sort of core events of the Higalaay festival this year so I'll blog about that some other time this week. Definitely watch out for an onslaught of blog posts from here on out. This space will be quite busy this week and until around end of September and hopefully onwards. 

Until the next blog post, then! See you around here. :)

going vegetarian in cagayan de oro: Pili-an Cafe and Restaurant

I'm SO behind a lot of posts but I'm still alive, yes. Just drowning in a ton of work and because I'm saving for a laptop for blogging and everything right now so yaaayyy! Soon! The posts will come in droves the SOONEST, late into this year. Or early next year. I have a ton of posts to catch up on including a quick trip to Taipei I had last week for something and another one I had to Davao for close friends' wedding there from a month or more ago or so. 

Anyway, let me preface this one by saying I've had a long history with being vegetarian. I am mostly pescetarian and I don't think I can ever go full vegan because honey is heavenly in my salads, smoothies and some juices. But if I ever do go vegan successfully...hmn...I guess I can always live on coconut nectar, stevia and other plant-based sweetener alternates. I can't say where this history with the obsession with being vegeterian of mine started but I remember being a Carrie Underwood fan during American Idol. She's vegetarian, probably vegan now, so I learned, idolised her then and still now and therefore wanted to go the same way. I never followed other American Idol seasons as faithfully as I've ever had Season 4 with her, Bo Bice and more on it since. Anyway, on a more serious note, I've later realized that I've always wanted to be vegetarian for health, primarily, and environmental purposes.

Aside from wanting to be vegetarian for good health and the environment, I'm also an avid fan of clean skin care and beauty products particularly from those of Human Heart Nature. So since this is mostly my case now, or MY LIFE now, I've recently decided to just go and be pescetarian->90% vegetarian. Hmn, I think I'm about done with being a yoyo dieter. 

And onto the point of this post: Pili-An Cafe and Restaurant. I've been frequenting this place after every payday at work as of late. Nothing else comes close as a favorite right after it, here, in downtown Cagayan de Oro City. The other vegan restaurant I'm curious about, Buen Provecho, is in the uptown and quite far from here. I haven't been uptown in sooo long a time although it's my favorite place to shoot photos for this blog for with friends. Err...among other crazy activities I get myself and friends into when our free times jive with each others'.  

Pili-an Cafe and Restaurant offers a lot of fun things and when I mean 'a lot', I mean A LOT. For one, it's a cafe where you can get sikwate or tsokolate (local or homemade hot chocolate) and suman (local sticky rice dessert and/or snack) while just hanging out and watching the world pass by outside the window on any random day of the week. Just watch out when they're closed for whatever reason like rest day of their staff. Then they're just inaccessible for that day. This does not happen often though, thankfully.

Two, it's a restaurant, of course. You can get both vegetarian and vegan food here. Below are my favorites from them and those they offer in their menu.

The huge bowl of Veggie Bibimbap is HEAVEN. I've had this twice now. The most recent just being last week because the last payday was last week. Their Fresh Tomato Herbed pasta is also really super good. If vegan, you can just opt without the bread.

It's not THAT clear but this is their menu. I have other things I'm curious about from this one too so I may as well try some of these some other time...SOON. I predict I'll be more frequent here anyway. (Sometimes, I just wish there were more vegetarian and vegan haunts around here but there really aren't much so...)

And three (lastly), they are also a mart of sorts where you can get something like this vegetarian snack. It's the vegetarian version of the chicharon (cracklings frequently made of pork or pork rinds). 

My other favorites to get there are a bottle of laing (a local Bicol-area vegetable-only, coconut milk-based dish) in mild spicy variant and I'm still thinking of getting their soy sauce-like dip of sorts. A bottle is Php 150 so good luck to my budget this week and next week...hmn... They also have muffins-cookies hybrid that I like: Mookies. A box is now 145 Php or so but trust me when I say it's worth it because it is! These are really good, heaven-sent protein-, energy-heavy not-so-tiny, tasty things!

For more about them, you may check to their facebook page here: Pili-an Cafe and Restaurant.

Their Limketkai Mall-Robinsons Shopping Center branch used to be my go-to for late lunches way back. They served 3 kinds of rice toppings, all three use brown rice. Plus they're really not that heavy on the pockets compared to when eating at fast food restaurants here. But last week, I found out they had just closed. I guess the rent there is really high now so they couldn't afford to keep said branch. This is the saddest for me because I frequent that branch as it's quite close to my current workplace.

I predict I'll be here again sometime next week, maybe over the weekend. Friday is payday at work, after all! Yay!

chilling poolside on a sunday

top, ebay. bottom, something borrowed via zalora PH (similar).

This was 3 sundays ago, in Stargate Resort that's just close to home and with the best girl friend and another friend of hers. 11 out 10, I'd go back there in a heartbeat. For one, it's close to home. Two, it has a really good view of the city from where it is situation (uphill, yes...). Three, it's not too crowded, I guess, like the other resort close to it, Ultrawinds. Fourth and last, the entrance fee is just 50 Php and the swimming fee or pool use fee is 150 Php. It's quite affordable, really and especially if you're just there for a quick dip to ward away the summer heat. Believe me, it is super, super hot...indian summer hot this time of the year that beach trips and pool dips are a regular must. It would be good to go swimming once every week when here...in this heat.